Adrian Levy | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/profile/adrianlevy
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Pakistan's unlikely crime fighterhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/24/pakistan-lost-kidnapped-children
How has a poor, uneducated man gone from cutting hair to rescuing a legion of lost and kidnapped children? Meet the Barber of Larkana…<p>The gravedigger spotted the bundle lying behind broken gravestones in the old Christian cemetery in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larkana_District" title="">Larkana</a>. At first he thought it was a pile of sacks, but when he saw the dogs gathering, he decided someone who could not afford burial rights had dumped a body. Then a teenager poked out her head. Taking in her shaking, skeletal frame, the gravedigger worried that if he didn't do something immediately, he'd soon be digging another hole.</p><p>He lifted the girl into his arms and stared into her face. The scorching sun burnishes everyone's skin in Pakistan's deep south, and this girl was fair. Her pale complexion hinted at a well-bred family from which she'd run or become separated. Holes ran the length of both ears, suggesting that she had once worn elaborate gold jewellery. Those days were clearly gone, but there was&nbsp;no way to find out why, as the girl was mute.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/24/pakistan-lost-kidnapped-children">Continue reading...</a>PakistanSouth and Central AsiaFri, 24 Jun 2011 22:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/24/pakistan-lost-kidnapped-childrenCharla Jones for the Guardian/Charla Jones'Hope should never be lost': Anwar Khokhar, the Barber of Larkana. Photograph: Charla Jones for the GuardianCharla Jones for the Guardian/Charla JonesAnwar Khokhar with Aleesha. Photograph: Charla Jones for the Guardian/Charla Jones<strong>Adrian Levy </strong>and <strong>Cathy Scott-Clark</strong>2011-06-24T22:01:00Z'Some people bully you because your house is not all fancy'http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jun/04/children-lilving-poverty-uk
In the UK, 3.8 million children live in poverty. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy hear from five of them<p>Courtney lives in a bare-walled terrace house on&nbsp;the Canterbury estate in Bradford, West Yorkshire, one of the most deprived parts of <sup></sup>Britain. She's been hearing a lot about money, she&nbsp;says. It is the only thing on anyone's mind as the summer holiday approaches, a time when having nothing makes the days drag by longer.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jun/04/children-lilving-poverty-uk">Continue reading...</a>ChildrenPovertySocial exclusionSocietyUK newsFri, 03 Jun 2011 23:04:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jun/04/children-lilving-poverty-ukTruevision/BBCCourtney, eight (right), and friend Holly, nine, in Bradford: ‘I think my future is ­going to have loads of bad things in it.’ Photograph: Truevision/BBCJoel Redman for the GuardianSam, 11, is living with ­relatives after his single parent dad had a heart attack. Photograph: Joel Redman for the GuardianJoel Redman for the GuardianMichael, 12, in Cardiff. Photograph: Joel Redman for the GuardianJoel Redman for the Guardian‘Everyone’s poor in some sort of way’: Craig, 10. Photograph: Joel Redman for the GuardianMartin Hunter for the GuardianPaige, 10, recently moved off a condemned Gorbals ­estate. Photograph: Martin Hunter for the GuardianCathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy2011-06-03T23:04:00ZCrossbow Cannibal: 'He killed because it was easy'http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/mar/05/crossbow-cannibal-stephen-griffiths
Stephen Griffiths, the self-styled 'Crossbow Cannibal', knew the perfect place to find victims and escape detection. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy visit Bradford's red-light district – a magnet for vulnerable women and violent, predatory men<p>Donna and Louise know a&nbsp;thing or two about scouting for punters. Their beat on City Road,&nbsp;a&nbsp;major artery moments from Bradford city centre, is a strategic choice. &quot;If&nbsp;the vice squad stops [the punters], they can say they're heading home,&quot; Donna explains. The nearby backroads, on&nbsp;the other hand, lead nowhere in particular – and&nbsp;it is there, amid condemned terraces, that the&nbsp;most desperate girls can be found.</p><p>According to Donna and Louise, up to 100 women tout the streets around them. &quot;Sharon, Tessa, Tracy and Cindy…&quot; Their list peters out. The two women have smoked the last of their crack, injected their last spoon of heroin, and they know the &quot;rattles&quot; of withdrawal will soon overtake their bodies. &quot;And there's worse than the rattles,&quot; Donna says, looking increasingly desperate as the cars drive past.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/mar/05/crossbow-cannibal-stephen-griffiths">Continue reading...</a>CrimeUK newsProstitutionSocietyBradfordSat, 05 Mar 2011 00:05:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/mar/05/crossbow-cannibal-stephen-griffiths-/AFP/Getty ImagesOn Griffiths’ computer, detectives found video footage of a naked, trussed-up woman in his bath, the words ‘My Sex Slave’ spray-painted on her back. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images-/AFP/Getty ImagesOn Griffiths' computer, detectives found video footage of a naked, trussed-up woman in his bath, the words 'My Sex Slave' spray-painted on her back. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty ImagesCathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy2011-03-05T00:05:00ZColin Blanchard: the disturbing backstory to a crime of our timeshttp://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/10/colin-blanchard-backstory-crime
With access to extracts from police interviews, the Guardian pieces together a complex, lengthy operation<p>The jailing of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/10/colin-blanchard-jail-paedophile-ring" title="">Colin Blanchard, Tracy Lyons, and Tracy Dawber</a> marks the end of a complex and disturbing police investigation spanning five counties that ended up uncovering not just a paedophile ring, but also a crime of our times.</p><p>The three accused were the last to be dealt with in this case, which was triggered by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/10/nursery-worker-charged" title="the arrest of Plymouth nursery worker Vanessa George">the arrest of Plymouth nursery worker Vanessa George</a>, accused of assaulting an unknown number of infants on a changing mat at Little Ted's nursery, while photographing her actions for the gratification of others. The self-styled &quot;paedo whore mum&quot; had, according to Justice Royce, who tried her case last October, aroused &quot;revulsion and incredulity&quot;, the shockwaves extending &quot;perhaps to every nursery school in the country&quot;.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/10/colin-blanchard-backstory-crime">Continue reading...</a>CrimePoliceUK newsChild protectionChildrenSocietyColin BlanchardMon, 10 Jan 2011 21:37:55 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/10/colin-blanchard-backstory-crimeDevon And Cornwall Police/PAColin Blanchard, 40, led what prosecutors described as 'one of the most sickening paedophile rings this country has seen'. Photograph: Devon And Cornwall police/PADevon And Cornwall Police/PAColin Blanchard, 40, led what prosecutors described as 'one of the most sickening paedophile rings this country has seen'. Photograph: Devon And Cornwall Police/PAAdrian Levyand Cathy Scott-Clark2011-01-10T21:37:55ZWho was Gareth Williams?http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/20/gareth-williams-spy-mi6
When the bagged body of an MI6 agent was found in a bathtub, speculation went into overdrive. Was it suicide? Murder? A professional hit, or a sexual game gone wrong?<p>On Tuesday 24 August, a storm was brewing off the North Wales coast. As gusts reached 50mph in&nbsp;the village of Valley, on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Anglesey" title="">Anglesey</a>, two sodden police officers stood at a front door on a close of modern bungalows above the beach. They knocked and knocked. Eventually someone ran out into the rain to tell them that Ellen and Ian Williams were away on holiday in the US. While detectives tried to locate the Williams abroad, someone found Ellen's father, John Hughes, who&nbsp;lived around the corner and broke the news:&nbsp;his 31-year-old grandson Gareth, a boy who had always been fit and healthy, was dead. Grandpa John was so distraught that he tripped, cut his head and had to be taken to hospital.</p><p>Then Gareth's uncle, William Hughes, who lived on a farm in nearby Trefor village, got the call. &quot;Gareth couldn't be dead? Surely not?&quot; Uncle William sat numbly with Gareth's 86-year-old great aunt before their open fire, staring at the porcelain figures on the mantelpiece. Gareth had been an exceptional boy, selected to work as some kind of analyst for <a href="http://www.gchq.gov.uk/" title="">GCHQ</a>, the government's secret listening station in Cheltenham, but the family never talked about it. And neither did Gareth. He'd been home just three weeks earlier, recalled Hughes, cycling the lanes on his race bike before the whole family had got together. But his life was &quot;now being lived a long way from the family in Anglesey,&quot; Hughes said, &quot;so some things we couldn't know.&quot;</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/20/gareth-williams-spy-mi6">Continue reading...</a>MI6CrimeUK newsWorld newsSat, 20 Nov 2010 00:03:59 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/20/gareth-williams-spy-mi6PA/Digital retouching by Jonas Foreman/Guardian Imaging DepartmentThree months after his body was found in a holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat, police still seem no closer to finding out what happened to Gareth Williams. Photograph: PA/Digital retouching by Jonas Foreman/Guardian Imaging DepartmentPA/Digital retouching by Jonas Foreman/Guardian Imaging DepartmentThree months after his body was found in a holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat, police still seem no closer to finding out what happened to Gareth Williams. Photograph: PA/Digital retouching by Jonas Foreman/Guardian Imaging Department<strong>Cathy Scott-Clark</strong> and <strong>Adrian Levy</strong>2010-11-20T00:03:59ZHow to defuse a human bomb | Taliban | Suicide bombershttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/16/defuse-human-bomb-taliban
In Pakistan, young boys are being recruited as suicide bombers by the Taliban. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy visit a new school that offers these brainwashed children a different future<p>The boy comes into view <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQOvO6jghKQ" title="">on the CCTV footage for just a few seconds</a>, long enough to see that he is very young and wearing something bulky under his shalwar kameez. He&nbsp;walks purposefully through a crowd of worshippers gathering at&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Durbar_Complex" title="">Data Darbar Sufi shrine in Lahore</a>, and then the screen is filled with a flash, followed by a juddering cloud of smoke. The blast settles to reveal a soundless world of body parts, shoes and clothes. The teenage suicide bomber killed himself and 45&nbsp;others, and maimed 175 more, in this blast on 2&nbsp;July 2010 – a good result for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that trained him, and another tragedy for Pakistan.</p><p>Abida Begum, a mother of six, living hundreds of miles away in the <a href="http://www.swatvalley.com/" title="">Swat Valley</a>, in Pakistan's north-west, recalled seeing the footage on TV in the village shop and feeling nauseous. Every time she heard of a suicide blast, she immediately thought of Attaullah, her 14-year-old son, who had gone missing in February on his way to school. She suspected he had been abducted by the TTP which had seized control of Swat in 2008, transforming this erstwhile idyll of trout streams and ski slopes into a wasps' nest of blood-letting and terror. Hundreds of young boys from Abida's village of Kabal and those surrounding it had disappeared, pressed into the TTP's ranks, leaving once boisterous alleys and cart tracks deserted after dusk. The Pakistani army had launched an offensive to drive out the TTP in April 2009 – and even claimed victory at the end of last year – but the militants' influence was being felt once more, with the bullet-ridden bodies of those who crossed them turning up in local fields.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/16/defuse-human-bomb-taliban">Continue reading...</a>TalibanPakistanWorld newsEducationFri, 15 Oct 2010 23:03:47 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/16/defuse-human-bomb-talibanCharla JonesA group of teenage boys draw the landscape near Pirano in the Swat Valley during an art therapy class. Photograph: Charla JonesCharla JonesA group of teenage boys draw the landscape near Pirano in the Swat Valley during an art therapy class. Photograph: Charla JonesCathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy2010-10-15T23:03:47ZWarhol's box of tricks | Brillo | fraudhttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/aug/21/warhol-brillo-boxes-scandal-fraud
Warhols sell for millions. But who decides which ones are genuine? And are they always right? Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark on a scandal that rocked the art world<p>In late 2003, Mayfair gallery owner Brian Balfour-Oatts was offered the deal of his career – a collection of rarely seen Warhol sculptures never before put up for sale. Painted white and silk-screened red and blue, the wooden boxes mimicked the 60s cardboard packaging for <a href="http://www.artchive.com/artchive/W/warhol/warhol_brillo_box.jpg.html" title="">Brillo</a> pads and represented a benchmark in Warhol's artistic output.</p><p>After shocking the art world with his infamous portraits of <a href="http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79809" title="">Campbell's Soup cans</a> in 1962, Warhol began work on 100 wooden sculptures of packing containers for a range of products from Brillo scourers to Del Monte peach halves. When they went on show in Manhattan's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stable_Gallery" title="">Stable Gallery</a> in 1964, many of his contemporaries denounced the artist for &quot;capitulating to consumerism&quot; but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Danto" title="">Arthur Danto</a>, today one of the world's foremost Warhol experts, and a professor of&nbsp;philosophy at New York's Columbia University, recalled walking out of the exhibition in awe, believing he had just witnessed &quot;the end of western art&quot;.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/aug/21/warhol-brillo-boxes-scandal-fraud">Continue reading...</a>Andy WarholThe art marketArtArt and designCultureMoneyFri, 20 Aug 2010 23:03:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/aug/21/warhol-brillo-boxes-scandal-fraudFred W. McDarrah/Getty ImagesWarhol in New York's Stable gallery, 1964, amid the Brillo box sculptures at the centre of the scandal. Photograph: Getty ImagesFred W. McDarrah/Getty ImagesWarhol in New York's Stable gallery, 1964, amid the Brillo box sculptures at the centre of the scandal. Photograph: Fred W. McDarrah/Getty ImagesAdrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark2010-08-20T23:03:02ZDeath of a child | Tiffany Wrighthttp://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/06/child-neglect-adrian-levy-cathy-scott-clark
What does the death of three-year-old Tiffany Wright reveal about the growing problem of child neglect?<p>The 999 call came in just after &shy;midnight. With &shy;Saturday sliding into &shy;Sunday, the streets of Sheffield ricocheted with the sounds of boozy &shy;bravado. On the line was the landlady of the Scarbrough Arms, a quiet pub in Upperthorpe, a nondescript suburb off the inner ring road. Her name was Sabrina Hirst and she was calling about Tiffany, her three-year-old daughter, who had &shy;collapsed and was not breathing. The operator coached her in basic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiopulmonary_resuscitation" title="">CPR</a>, hoping the child would live long enough for the paramedics to arrive.</p><p>A police patrol made it first to the white-walled corner plot on Addy Street. Upstairs, in the flat above the pub, the officers found Sabrina Hirst crouched in a bedroom doorway over a small body. The child was dead. One of the officers lifted Tiffany's arm and noted that it was floppy, not stiff with <a href="http://chemistry.about.com/cs/biochemistry/a/aa061903a.htm" title="">rigor mortis</a>, that her skin was tinged with an odd, blackening pallor and that her eyes were sallow and sunken. Stranger still, she was covered in a&nbsp;skein of insect bites, adding to the building &shy;suspicion that she had been dead for some time. A&nbsp;dog &shy;barking in another room drew the &shy;officer away. In the bedroom next door a&nbsp;baby screamed, purple with panic, naked in his&nbsp;dishevelled cot.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/06/child-neglect-adrian-levy-cathy-scott-clark">Continue reading...</a>Child protectionChildrenCrimeSat, 06 Feb 2010 00:11:23 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/06/child-neglect-adrian-levy-cathy-scott-clarkSouth Yorkshire Police/South Yorkshire Police'The crime scene was everything in this case,' said the police officer in charge about the room in which Tiffany Wright died, 'and it was the worst I have witnessed.' Photograph: South Yorkshire PoliceCathy Scott-Clark/Cathy Scott-ClarkTiffany Wright aged two. Photograph: Cathy Scott-Clark<strong>Adrian Levy</strong> and <strong>Cathy Scott-Clark</strong>2010-02-06T00:11:23ZLights, camera, disaster: the making of The Big I Amhttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/dec/05/the-big-i-am-film-hollywood
The Hollywood star refused to come out of his trailer, the leading lady's hair melted and the actor hired to play the joy- rider couldn't drive<p>Brixton-born City trader Robert Fucilla had succeeded in everything he had put his hand to, from selling oil to backing British hip-hop acts, and believed his Italian ancestry gave him a shot at being a&nbsp;British <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000199/" title="AlPacino">Al&nbsp;Pacino</a>. Of course, millions dream of breaking into the movies, but what underpinned Fucilla's ambition, friends and workmates agree, what made him stand out from every other fantasist and wannabe, was self-belief and a monumental ego.</p><p>Too impatient to train as an actor, and having briefly tried the traditional route of&nbsp;castings and pumping connections, Fucilla decided to buy his way in. At first, this approach proved remarkably successful. Somehow, the novice film-maker secured more than &pound;1m from investors, assembled a solid, homegrown cast that included <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/faces/phil_davis.shtml" title="Phil Davis">Phil Davis</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0443373/" title="Paul Kaye">Paul Kaye</a> and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.stevenberkoff.com/" title="Steven Berkoff">Steven Berkoff</a>, and in Michael Madsen – <a href="http://www.dailyraider.com/vg/pc/reservoirdogs/01.jpg" title="the psychopathic Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs">the psychopathic Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs</a> – he even had a bona fide Hollywood name. Having slated himself as executive producer, found his story (a young thug's brutal coming of age) and recruited a reputable ad director to shoot&nbsp;it, all that remained was for Fucilla to cast himself. What better way to be spotted than in&nbsp;a&nbsp;tightly managed, low-budget Brit movie supported by an&nbsp;ensemble of proven talent?</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/dec/05/the-big-i-am-film-hollywood">Continue reading...</a>FilmCultureCrimeDramaThrillerSat, 05 Dec 2009 00:11:18 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/dec/05/the-big-i-am-film-hollywoodDavid Levene'I wanted to sue everyone.' Photograph: David LeveneDavid Levene'I wanted to sue everyone.' Photograph: David Levene<strong>Adrian Levy </strong>and <strong>Cathy Scott Clark</strong>2009-12-05T00:11:18ZHome to something evil: Jersey care scandalhttp://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/mar/14/haut-de-la-garenne
What really happened at Haut de la Garenne, the children's home at the centre of the Jersey care scandal last year? Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report on a building that still houses some very dark secrets<p><strong>The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday 25 April 2009</strong></p><p>The article below about an investigation into events at the Jersey children's home Haut de la Garenne mentioned the Madeleine McCann case in Portugal and said that after dogs trained to detect the scent of death had sounded the alarm over a car used by Madeleine's parents, Portuguese police claimed that the couple had killed their daughter. We should have made clear that the McCanns were never charged in relation to the disappearance of their daughter. The article failed to distinguish between fact and opinion when it said that the dogs were misled by scent traces in the car from the McCann parents' medical work. That was the opinion of a police source who had experience with the same dogs but no direct knowledge of the McCann case. The article said Jersey's assembly is made up of conn&eacute;tables, their deputies and 12 elected senators. In fact, conn&eacute;tables, deputies and senators are all independently elected legislators. It also described the island's honorary police force as private; the distinction being made was between the Honorary Police, who are elected on a parish basis, and the Jersey Paid Police.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/mar/14/haut-de-la-garenne">Continue reading...</a>Child protectionSocietyJerseyEuropeSat, 14 Mar 2009 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/mar/14/haut-de-la-garenneCathy Scott-Clark2009-03-14T00:01:00ZAdrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark on the trail of Pakistan's Talibanhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/10/pakistan-taliban-intelligence-report
The authorities in Pakistan have often seemed in cahoots with home-grown terrorists. Not any more. Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark report from Islamabad and the border badlands as a new intelligence unit gets serious about tackling the bombers.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/jan/10/pakistan-taliban-islamabad">See more images from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border</a><p>As the first reports of explosions at the Taj and Oberoi hotels in Mumbai reached Islamabad just after 9pm on November 26, Pakistan's counter-terrorism investigators twitched. Later that night, CCTV cameras inside Mumbai's Victoria railway station relayed footage of a blood-spattered concourse and the faces of some of the gunmen. The guests fleeing from the hotels told TV reporters that their assailants were speaking Urdu and were hunting down British and American passport holders. Almost immediately, over the border, the Pakistani investigators began pulling out files and photographs that accompanied the &quot;Red Book&quot; - their most-wanted list.</p><p>Pakistan's foreign minister condemned the attacks and expressed his sympathy to the families of the 173 killed. Even before India began making accusations - and despite subsequent Pakistani denials - detectives in Islamabad privately feared the outrage had Pakistani roots and might even have been rehearsed two months earlier, when the five-star Marriott Hotel in Islamabad had been obliterated. It all sounded grimly familiar: the methodology, the soft targets, the singling out of westerners.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/10/pakistan-taliban-intelligence-report">Continue reading...</a>PakistanWorld newsTalibanSat, 10 Jan 2009 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/10/pakistan-taliban-intelligence-reportWarrick Page/Warrick PageGunsmiths make shotguns. Photograph: Warrick PageWarrick Page/Warrick PagePakistani soldiers. Photograph: Warrick PageWarrick Page/Warrick PageA guard on the Pakistani frontier. Photograph: Warrick PageWarrick Page/Warrick PageThe border crossing into Khyber Agency. Photograph: Warrick PageWarrick Page/Warrick PageSadruddin Hashwani standing outside the Islamabad Marriott. Photograph: Warrick PageWarrick Page/Warrick PageSpecial Investigation Group files. Photograph: Warrick PageAdrian Levy2009-01-10T00:01:00ZCathy Scott-Clark: Can Aung San Suu Kyi lead while captive?http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/11/burma-aung-san-suu-kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi made the world take notice of Burma's struggle for democracy. But her failure to react to recent key crises means that many of her followers now question her ability to lead the fight against the military junta. By Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy<p><strong>This article was the subject of a complaint made on behalf of Aung San Suu kyi. The readers' editor published a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/01/aung-san-suu-kyi-readers-editor">correction and apology on Monday 1 June 2009</a> and a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/01/aung-san-suu-kyi-decision-guardian-readers-editor">summary of her decision in response to the complaint</a> on the same day</strong></p><p><strong>The following apology was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Tuesday December 2 2008</strong></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/11/burma-aung-san-suu-kyi">Continue reading...</a>BurmaWorld newsAung San Suu KyiSouth and Central AsiaTue, 11 Nov 2008 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/11/burma-aung-san-suu-kyiGurinder Osan/APA Myanmar activist at a march in New Delhi to mark Aung San Suu Kyi's 63rd birthday Photograph: Gurinder Osan/APPornchai Kittiwongsakul/EPAThe detained Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Photograph: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/EPACathy Scott-Clark &amp; Adrian Levy2008-11-11T00:01:00ZThe troubled upbringing that led John Hogan to jump from a hotel balcony with his childrenhttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/25/john-hogan-hotel-balcony-crete
John Hogan was a doting father. So what made him jump from a hotel balcony with his two young children? On the eve of his appeal to have an 'unlawful killing' verdict quashed in the UK, Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy investigate the troubled upbringing that led to tragedy<p>To the jury in Greece, John Hogan was insane. They concluded that the self-employed tiler from south Bristol was not guilty of murder, having been overcome by an &quot;earthquake&quot; of psychosis when he leapt from a hotel balcony, four floors up, with his two children. Six-year-old Liam Hogan died from his injuries; Mia, his two-year-old sister, survived. </p><p>John Hogan maintained throughout the trial last January that he felt &quot;no guilt&quot; about Liam's death because the real Hogan had not done it, a cuckoo-like madness having displaced his good nature. He frustrated cross-examination by claiming to remember nothing about what he referred to as &quot;the accident&quot;.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/25/john-hogan-hotel-balcony-crete">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleFri, 24 Oct 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/25/john-hogan-hotel-balcony-creteCathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy2008-10-24T23:01:00ZPeople trafficking: 'It is down your street and in your lane'http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/oct/11/immigration-people-trafficking
Fujian is the centre of Chinese people trafficking - the immigrants who suffocated in the back of a lorry and drowned picking cockles in Morecambe Bay all came from there. Now, Fujianese girls are being recruited into brothels across the UK. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report on China's missing<p>It was one of dozens of advertisements in the Chinese Business Gazette, a freesheet circulated in Chinatown in London. A brothel was advertising for staff: &quot;Located in outer London. Catered only for westerners. Busy. Comfort-able living environment. Safety guaranteed. Recruiting Misses. Housekeeper urgently required. Female only.&quot; Hsiao-Hung Pai, a reporter who has carried out undercover investigations for the Guardian in the past, applied for the housekeeper job.</p><p>Summoned to a neat, featureless block of flats in leafy Bedfordshire, she was hired on the spot by Linda, an illegal immigrant using an assumed English name, who turns an annual profit of &pound;250,000 running two brothels employing teenage girls trafficked from China. Hsiao-Hung's duties were to cook, clean and look after the girls.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/oct/11/immigration-people-trafficking">Continue reading...</a>Immigration and asylumChinaUK newsWorld newsPoliticsAsia PacificFri, 10 Oct 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/oct/11/immigration-people-traffickingCathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy2008-10-10T23:01:00ZAdrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark: Facing Islamist chaos and America's Rambo, Pakistan is turning to No 10http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/16/pakistan.usa
Asif Ali Zardari will discuss his radical new vision in Downing Street today, knowing Washington can derail everything<p>After claiming to have spent nine years nurturing democracy in Pakistan and festooning the country's military dictatorship with $11bn in aid, the Bush administration's policy is careering out of control, as US soldiers trade bullets with the forces of what was once a most-favoured ally in the &quot;war on terror&quot;. On Sunday night, Pakistan border troops fired on a raiding party of American commandos emerging from two Chinooks in an attempt to cross on foot from Afghanistan into the Pakistan village of Angoor Adda. They had no permission to be there.</p><p>This was the latest in a series of forays into Pakistan sovereign territory taken by US special forces at the behest of President Bush. In July he signed an executive order to sidestep Pakistan's freely elected government in the rush to claim al-Qaida scalps - especially Osama bin Laden's. In the past six weeks, US missiles have rained down on Pakistani villages, with Predator drones lighting up the country's tribal belt and hunter-killer teams dropping into Pakistan's villages in the dead of night.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/16/pakistan.usa">Continue reading...</a>PakistanUS newsIslamWorld newsUK newsGeorge BushAsif Ali ZardariMon, 15 Sep 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/16/pakistan.usaAdrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark2008-09-15T23:01:00ZAdrian Levy: Why Pakistan's power struggles matterhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/jun/12/pakistan
Since Benazir Bhutto's assassination and the elections Pakistan has slipped from the headlines. Its troubles may yet return to haunt us<p>The start of a long march by <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7444265.stm">black-suited lawyers</a> across Pakistan this week garnered a few headlines for a country that has lately slipped from the world's gaze, trumped by devastating earthquakes, tropical storms and the start of Big Brother 9. But now, more than ever, we should be paying acute attention to Pakistan as it tumbles towards a precipitous crisis.</p><p>The lawyers were demanding the reinstatement of 60 judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3 2007 as well as for the resignation of Musharraf himself who, since his party, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Muslim_League_(Q)">PML-Q</a>, was routed in the February 2008 polls, has never been weaker. They are also trying to force the hand of the new coalition government, made up of the late Benazir Bhutto's PPP and Nawaz Sharif's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PML-N">PML-N</a>, that came to power promising to reinstate the judges and deal with Musharraf – but that since has been unable to agree how to proceed.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/jun/12/pakistan">Continue reading...</a>PakistanWorld newsThu, 12 Jun 2008 09:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/jun/12/pakistanAdrian Levy2008-06-12T09:30:00ZCathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report from the leader of Burma's hideawayhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/24/burma.thanshwe
There have been street protests, a cyclone and appalling loss of life, yet Burma's junta remains untouched, winning a 92% 'vote of confidence' amid the devastation. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report from the leader's hideaway<p>Two matching pairs of soft cotton slippers are laid outside the sliding glass doors. Lilies in the adjoining palm grove fill the air with a heavy perfume. This seaside villa on Burma's west coast - made from polished hardwood, marble and mother-of-pearl - is the holiday hideaway of Senior General Than Shwe, head of the latest incarnation of a junta that has clung to Burma like bindweed for five decades.</p><p>It is hard to reconcile the quiet luxury of this villa, its infinity pool overlooking five miles of Ngwe Saung (Silver Beach), with the devastation in the Irrawaddy delta region just a few miles to the south, where cyclone Nargis struck on May 3, killing thousands and destroying a million-plus bamboo-and-wood homes. The Ngwe Saung villa is a haven for the Senior General and his family, and for his fellow generals who share a holiday camp just along the beach. Here, Than Shwe could relax after brutally crushing the uprising by the nation's monks in Rangoon last September. His villa survived the cyclone.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/24/burma.thanshwe">Continue reading...</a>BurmaHuman rightsWorld newsLife and styleLawSouth and Central AsiaFri, 23 May 2008 23:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/24/burma.thanshweDavid Longstreath/APMyanmar ruler Senior General Than Shwe attends Armed Forces Day ceremonies on Sunday March 27, 2005, in Yangon. Photograph: AP Photo/David LongstreathDavid Longstreath/APMyanmar ruler Senior General Than Shwe attends Armed Forces Day ceremonies on Sunday March 27, 2005, in Yangon. Photograph: AP Photo/David LongstreathCathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy2008-05-23T23:00:00ZAdrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark report on Cambodia, a country for salehttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/26/cambodia
Almost half of Cambodia has been sold to foreign speculators in the past 18 months - and hundreds of thousands who fled the Khmer Rouge are homeless once more. Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark report<p>Sang Run, his hair stiff with sea salt, chugs out into the Gulf of Kompong Som in his weather-beaten turquoise boat, looking for blackling. He scours the shallow, blue water, waiting for a shoal to appear, before skimming his net across the water. He does the same every day, taking his catch to auction on Independence Beach in Cambodia's southern port city of Sihanoukville.</p><p>It looks like a scene Sang Run was born into. But 20 years ago the beach was deserted, and he was a schoolteacher in Mondulkiri, a forested province hundreds of miles away in the east of the country. Back then, he could talk all day about palm sugar and betel nuts. He was something of an amateur botanist, but had never seen the sea - nor had any of the group who today gather around his silvery haul flapping in the sand on Independence Beach. Former nurse Srey Pov, who runs a Khmer restaurant along the beach, also came from a province many miles away. She still cannot swim, she says, shrugging. Heads nod around her. Cambodia is a nation that would drown if their boat tipped over; it is also a country whose citizens mostly do not belong to the places where they have ended up.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/26/cambodia">Continue reading...</a>CambodiaWorld newsTravelCambodiaLife and styleKhmer RougeAsia PacificFri, 25 Apr 2008 23:08:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/26/cambodiaAdrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark2008-04-25T23:08:12ZWith a friend like Pervezhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/03/withafriendlikepervez
Please stop giving the Pakistani president the benefit of the doubt. He doesn't deserve it<p>The west's propping up of Pervez Musharraf is causing a barrage of loathing. After a fortnight that saw Gordon Brown feting the Pakistani president at No 10, while George Bush bizarrely forecast that the war on terror would be the defining ideological struggle of the 21st century - warning that &quot;terrorists oppose every principle of humanity and decency that we hold dear&quot; - my inbox is bursting with emails emanating from Pakistan.</p><p>&quot;Why did the British give Musharraf a soft ride?&quot; a teacher I have known for many years wrote disbelievingly from Lahore. &quot;Barely three weeks after an incendiary climate in Musharraf's radicalised Pakistan claimed the life of Benazir Bhutto, the president was slapped on the back by Gordon Brown,&quot; a banker from Karachi emailed. &quot;So much for humanity and decency. You guys are slippery.&quot;</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/03/withafriendlikepervez">Continue reading...</a>PakistanGordon BrownBenazir BhuttoMiddle East and North AfricaSun, 03 Feb 2008 13:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/03/withafriendlikepervezAdrian Levy2008-02-03T13:00:00ZWhy a spy was killed: The real story of Alexander Litvinenkohttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jan/26/weekend.adrianlevy
When Alexander Litvinenko fled Moscow for Britain, he found it hard to find work; London was awash with former KGB agents. So he turned to Italy, where he found a ready market for intelligence, not all of it real. What happened next was to make him some dangerous enemies<p>Alexander Litvinenko began his patriotic career volunteering for the Red Army straight out of school in 1979. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the KGB had plucked him from the ranks and set him to work as an operative detective. He was 29. Litvinenko first served in counterterrorism in the mid-90s, then began infiltrating the criminal gangs that flourished in the chaos of the new Russia.</p><p>Litvinenko, according to former colleagues and commanders, was a workaday spy. His modus operandi was to stride into a scenario, bang heads together and wait for the fallout. He hoovered up everything that came his way, leaving analysts to sort the truth from the lies. He was, like many agents in Kontora - or &quot;the company&quot;, as they called the KGB and its successor, the FSB - secretive, solitary and vain. Litvinenko was expected to be capable of violence in his job, but Marina, who had married him in 1994, despite her fears about the secret services, told us the Sasha she knew was gentle, straightforward and passionate.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jan/26/weekend.adrianlevy">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleAlexander LitvinenkoRussiaWorld newsEuropeSat, 26 Jan 2008 23:40:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jan/26/weekend.adrianlevyCathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy2008-01-26T23:40:38Z